For Teenagers – How to Get Help for Depression (video)

Lawrence and I talk about teenagers and depression on our YouTube Channel:

Transcript:

Hi, I’m Deborah Gray

And I’m her son Lawrence

And we are going to talk about, uh, teenagers and depression, um, pretty specifically how teenagers can get help for depression. So, I actually wrote an article for my website, Wing of Madness, in – some time in the late 90s I’d say, uh, that was called “For Teenagers with Depression” that talked about this, and I noticed in the last few years it wasn’t getting a lot of traffic because teenagers nowadays – like you – don’t go to websites that much anymore.

Mostly doing apps and stuff.

Righ, apps and Instagram.

Yeah, stuff like that.

Right. So, um, when I decided to start this YouTube channel, one of the reasons was because, uh, depression and anxiety in teens is up, and so I wanted to find a way to reach teenagers and, uh, talk to them about depression and, and getting help for it.

Um, so when I wrote this article I made the assumption that there are some kids who have, you know, some teenagers with depression who have parents who are stable and loving and maybe just, you know, don’t know enough about depression.

Yeah.

And in that case, you know, my advice was talk to your parents, you know, tell your parents, “Listen, um, I, I think I might have depression. Um, I really want to see a doctor, um, see about getting treatment,” and you know, I think, you know, in that situation then it, it should be relatively easy to get help.

Yeah.

You know, you know and and that’s the group of teenagers that are fortunate. Um, then there are other teens that are in a situation where their parent or parents are, um, I guess, not stable, maybe have trouble taking care of themselves, um, who might be abusive, um, you know, they’re in some situation where it’s not as easy.

Um, so in that case, um, my suggestion was, and tell me what you think, is to see if there’s another adult, either a counselor or teacher at school, um, you know, religious leader if you go to church. Um, someone who can maybe intervene with your parent or parents and say, “Listen, you know, um, you, you need to do something because, you know, your child, your teen really, um, you know, is suffering and, and needs help.” So if you’re a teenager and you think your parents aren’t going to listen, um, then, you know, talk to an adult who can intervene and hopefully your parent will listen to the adult. Um, so, what do you think?

I mean, I was lucky enough, as weird as it sounds to say this, that you were depressed. You know how it felt.

Yes.

I can’t remember if there were any real adults who like actually, so – besides you and Dad – who really were like there and noticed and tried to help me through it.

Um, I, I know that you actually talked to – there was someone you talked to – the, the
parent of friend of yours you talked to you about it, but other than that…

I don’t remember.

Yeah. The other thing that I talked about in this article was, if you’re a teenager with depression should you tell your friends?

It depends, because, um, when I went to middle school I was blessed to have friends who knew what I was going through, because they were depressed as well, and had issues like that. I was really lucky, as weird as it sounds to say it, I was lucky to have friends that had been depressed or were depressed, um, because then that they could relate to me, and in the cases when they needed to talk, I could relate to them. But…

And they also didn’t ostracize you because you had depression.

Although not a whole lot…I’d say it depends, because in my case my friends were depressed, so they could understand what I was going through when I said that I was depressed. But if you, if your friends aren’t depressed, that’s…it can go both ways. They can, like, start learning about depression and be like, “Okay, I’m starting to understand what…how this could be affecting you. I’m going to try my best to help you,” or it could just go down the road of them thinking you’re just, uh, uh, a wimp or something, and they’re being like, “Oh, well, you’ll be fine.”

Or a drama queen.

Yeah, something like that. They just are saying, “Oh, you’ll be fine, you’re just, you’re just really sad.” And it’s like, no, no, I’m not, I’m clinically depressed.

Well, I think the other thing is, is, um, I think sometimes you do have to be careful about whether you share it or not. Um, some people can handle it and some people can’t. So, I mean, you could have a friend who’s – who can handle it, even though they don’t have depression. Um, or…

They’re a really lucky find.

Yeah, yeah, you know, I had a friend like that. Or, or, you know, there are a lot of people who, who can’t handle it, um, so which, which I found when I was diagnosed with depression, and…I was pretty open about it, and some people could handle it, and some people couldn’t. So, I think it’s something that, um, you, you know, you’re taking a chance either way.

Yeah, definitely.

But I think if you’re a teenager with depression, the important thing is, um, that you need…you have to get help.

Yeah, you have avenues of help where you can go and actually get the assistance you need.

Yeah, and, um, you know, we’ll put some links below in the show notes of places you can go on the web, because there are places on the web that have good information.

And the one at the top will be Wing of Madness.

Well yes, Wing of Madness, but also there are a lot of really good pages, um, you know, on sites for teenagers with depression online, so it’s, it’s definitely worth getting in the information – it might be good to have that information in hand when you talk to your parents or whatever grown-up you, you’re asking to advocate for you.

Yeah, that…that’s probably a good idea.

Yeah. So anyway, if this video has been helpful, please consider giving it a like, doing a thumbs up and doing a thumbs up, and, um..

Doing a thumbs up?

Doing a thumbs up – sorry, click, clicking, pressing the thumbs up button.

Better.

Yes, yes I realize. And, um, also, if you want to leave a comment or a question below, then that would be great we’d love to see them.

Even criticism as well.

Criticism is definitely welcome also. Um, there are no thin-skinned people here. And, um, if you’d like to see more videos about depression, please consider subscribing, because we will be doing more, and definitely more, uh, for teenagers with depression.

Although we can’t, uh, we can’t, uh, guarantee a consistent upload schedule.

Uh, no, no, we are going to try to have a consistent upload schedule. Not both of us, you know, not videos with both of us all the time, but, uh, definitely videos pretty frequently. So, uh, anyway, we will see you next time. Bye bye.